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Are you a Cyborg super soldier or just a regular super soldier? There are two big console shooters out right now, and most people aren’t going to buy both. The long winter months are going to call for some

serious hibernation via First Person Deathmatch, and the question to be asked is: Call of Duty of Halo?

The two shooters couldn’t be more the same, they couldn’t be more different. Both rely on fast-paced, competitive multiplayer alongside a linear campaign built around enormous set pieces. Both have had their moments as the biggest names in gaming, both have had their share of enemies. Both are among the biggest budget, tightest gameplay experiences on the market.

The aesthetic is the biggest difference. Halo is a grand space opera set against colossal artifacts of a techno-mystic past. It’s about building sci-fi on the scale of religion, with heroes to boot. The Spartans in Halo are superhuman, their weapons absurd, their enemies ridiculous. If grandeur is your game, go with Halo.

Call of Duty is a fantastic version of our own world, one where blowing up the Eiffel tower is not only awesome but right and necessary. Our soldiers have guns built to look and feel real, and our world is smeared with an appropriate layer of grit before being shipped. It’s a nastier game, much less appropriate for children. If you want things to feel just a bit more down to earth, go with Call of Duty.

It comes down to a matter of taste. Do you like the gritty or the fantastic? Do you like vehicles or drones? Do you like Zombies? For me, Halo has struggled to maintain its sense of energy in this outing. Things look and feel the same – the old slog to unload 100 bullets into the body of a Covenant elite just doesn’t feel as rewarding as it once did. Master Chief is getting old, and he feels a little tired.

Call of Duty, on the other hand, maintains an impossible level of youthful exuberance in the face of repetition. The perfectly linear, tunnel vision idea of the First Person Shooter has more than a few critics, but it gives Treyarch total control of the pacing. Whether in the campaign, multiplayer or Zombies, Call of Duty has a sense of timing that exceeds any other game on the market. It’s present, it’s exciting. Halo’s weapons can feel weak against the invincible enemies they’re supposed to kill, but Call of Duty never fails.

If you’re going to buy a first person video game this fall, buy Dishonored – it’s the best one out there so far, and a hell of a good time. If you need a multiplayer shooter, however, go with Black Ops 2. I’ll have more of my thoughts on it later. Of course if you own a PS3, that’s your only choice.